Saturday, April 14, 2018

Staunton, April 14 – Most analyses
of the impact of sanctions in Russia have focused on the way they will affect either
the country as a whole or various social groups such as the oligarchs. But
Altay State University economist Vasily Privalov notes they have an important
regional dimension and that Siberia is being hit harder than anywhere else.

In a comment to the Regnum news
agency, Privalov points out that the US sanctions “will hit in the first
instance residents of Siberia because the largest enterprises of Deripaska and Potanin
are concentrated in Krasnoyarsk kray and Irkutsk oblast” (regnum.ru/news/economy/2404200.html).

Deripaska’s enterprises in these
federal subjects alone employ “more than 170,000 people;” and if he is forced
to cut back, they will suffer first and then those who support them in the
economy of the regions.That is
something, Privalov argues, Moscow should be thinking about in structuring its
support for those hit by sanctions.

The Altay scholar does not say, but
it is obvious that if the firms of the oligarchs in Siberia contract and shed
workers, that will not only put the workers and their families in a difficult
position, at least some of whom engage in protests but also land the regional
governments in difficulties because they will have to scramble to support the unemployed.

Unfortunately, Privalov’s analysis does
suggest, few in Moscow are thinking about the regional dimension of the impact
of sanctions and thus the center may make decisions which are completely defensible
for the country as a whole but which will have especially negative consequences
for enormous regions like Siberia.